Handcent privacy

[busbus]

Hello,

I downloaded Handcent SMS for my Samsung Galaxy. The only thing I am interested in is the ability to have a password on my text messages. I lend my phone to friends/family and I do not want them to read my text messages. I am not interested in any of the other bells & whistles Handcent offers; I'm perfectly content with the built-in messenger.

I have two problems and hope that someone can help me

1. I want to use the stock notification, not Handcent SMS. But it somehow disabled the stock notification. The only notification I can get is from Handcent. I've fiddled around with the settings and cannot find out how to fix this. If I turn off Handcent notifications, the stock notifications do not work at all.

2. A friend circumvented the password screen by going through my contacts. She selected a contact and pressed "send message." And she was able to see a text conversation and sent that person (someone I JUST started dating. lol) a text!

How could I fix these issues? And if they are not fixable, what app should I download instead?

Thanks.

 

[itsallgood]

I have heard of certain apps that allows you to lock out apps on your phone from someone else using them. You would need to enter a password in order to use that app. In your case, Handcent when pressed, would require a password to launch it. Check out this link to App Lock. (I've never used it, but will try it out.)

Word of advice, Treat your phone like your wallet or purse. Don't let others use it. Best way to protect your things.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.cc.applock&hl=en&rdid=com.cc.applock&rdot=1

 

[chanchan05]

You can try Seal, its an app to put passwords over your apps. Its currently free from Getjar (Its a legit app store).

 

[busbus]

Thanks guys. And how about the notification issue? How do I fix that?

 

[chanchan05]

You can't use the stock notification on handcent. If you enable the stock notification, it will open the stock message app not the handcent app, and that sort of defeats the purpose of having handcent at all.

 

[busbus]

You can't use the stock notification on handcent. If you enable the stock notification, it will open the stock message app not the handcent app, and that sort of defeats the purpose of having handcent at all.

It was possible. I replaced my Galaxy in mid-November and somehow, I had it configured that way.

 

[chanchan05]

It was possible. I replaced my Galaxy in mid-November and somehow, I had it configured that way.

If you are talking about the stock Android green smiley, yes its possible. If you're talking about the yellow envelope, I'm not so sure. You could try disabling notification on Handcent and reenabling that on stock SMS, then clear defaults on both apps and see if the stock notification asks you what do you want to use by default, but I can't guarantee. I've long since dumped Handcent.

 

[itsallgood]

I had an opportunity to try "App Lock" and it worked great. You can choose the apps to lock and requires a password to open them. You can have it displayed in the notification bar to enable and disable it. Also, you can try and turn off all notifications within the Handcent app and see if only the stock SMS notification works.